flopsymopsy, that was just one of many rapid messages that suggested the sky was falling but if I sent money all would be well. So I just switched off and went to my knitting, after booking "Mr Computer Man" to make a house call. He's well trained - brings me a bucket of plums or some empty jars and goes home with a bonus of jam and pickles in addition to his fee.

Beautiful spring flowers Ren. We seem to have had a shortage of impatiens seedlings over the past few years. I think I heard that there was some sort of disease affecting the growers' ability to supply.

My family visited on the weekend, and were fed corned beef with cabbage, carrots, mash and mustard gravy - always a favourite.I found myself singing to my grandson, "Boiled Beef and Carrots", much to his amusement. I had heard it from my mother, whose father was a devotee of the Music Halls of London. So it now passes to another generation.

The leftovers were mixed together and re-cycled as Bubble'n'Squeak. Yummy.

Seagulls drinking salt water from a puddle on the steps at Cottesloe Beach.

The seagull's ability to survive drinking salt water is due to a pair of glands in the head, just above the eyes, which act as a miniature desalination plant. The excess salt is expelled from the glands via the nostrils. This expelled salt water is many times more salty than tears, about five times as salty as the gull's own blood and twice as salty as sea water.

An unusual waterlily, bearing three distinct, albeit distorted, flower heads on one stalk. In addition there's another tiny bud with a short wiry stem growing from the mass.I hope the next one will be normal!

This was from July 2009 lookikng west from Timaru, around 8am in a cold wnter morning. The full moon above the snow covered foothills with the sun rising behind me making a pink glow to the clouds. Unfortunately I could not move the power lines.....lol